sofa

Borrowed from French sofa, ultimately from Arabic صُفَّة (ṣuffa), a long seat made of stone or brick, covered with rich carpets and cushions and used for sitting upon. Cognate with Aramaic צפא/ܨܦܬܐ (ṣipā’, ṣeppəṯā, “mat, matting”). The word may have entered European languages via Muslim Iberia or through Turkish.

A firm sofa

A soft sofa

A modern-style sofa

• sopha (obsolete)

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: sō'fə, IPA^(key): /ˈsəʊfə/
• (General American) enPR: sō'fə, IPA^(key): /ˈsoʊfə/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -əʊfə

sofa (plural sofas)

1. (Middle East architecture, archaic) A raised area of a building's floor, usually covered with carpeting, used for sitting.
2. (furniture, chiefly UK, India) An upholstered seat with a raised back and one or two raised ends, long enough to comfortably accommodate two or more people.

   Synonyms: couch, lounge, divan, settee

   • 1930, Norman Lindsay, Redheap, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1965, →OCLC, page 228:

     His eyes trailed over her feline pose on the sofa, finding her limbs adorable while he tried exasperatedly to extract the truth of licentious revelations from them.

• love seat

sofa (third-person singular simple present sofas, present participle sofaing, simple past and past participle sofaed)

1. To furnish with one or more sofas.
   • 1852, Charles Astor Bristed, Five years in an English university, page 14:

     The appearance of a student's apartment, though by no means splendid, is decidedly comfortable ; it is well cushioned and sofaed, with a proper proportion of arm chairs, and a general air of respectability — much better on the whole than our student's rooms ever are.

   • 1890, Stanley Lane-Poole, The Life of Lord Stratford de Redcliffe - Volume 1, page 100:

     First, it will surprize you to learn that instead of the venerable simplicity which reigns in St. Stephen's chapel, the H. of Representatives, besides being stoved, carpeted, desked, and sofaed in the most luxurious style, rivals and indeed surpasses the Legislature of Paris in decoration and drapery.

   • 1893, Henry Swinglehurst, Silver Mines and Incidents of Travel, page 97:

     I and another therefore entirely occupied our stateroom, which was sofaed round, being just large enough for two to lie down and a third to sit with his feet up and his head on his knees.

   • 1981, David A. Kaufelt, The Wine and the Music, page 331:

     It was a lavish, fully draped, fully sofaed, fully radiator-covered nineteenth-century deluxe German hotel suite.

2. To seat or lay down on a sofa.
   • 1895, Denver Medical Times - Volume 5, page 191:

     Cliques of three or more are formed, each member of which goes in search of victims, and the first female found complaining of pain in the lower part of her back, is immediately run down, corralled, cornered, so to speak, and sans ceremonie she is at once tabled, sofaed or beded, or in the absence of these relics of refinement she is floored or she may have to submit standing (especially if the doctor is in a hury and meets her at the gate or corner drug store) with an unerring plunge, of a not overly clean index finger, the darksome cavern is penetrated and perhaps, not, a cervix is touched and reveals, of course, a lacerated cervix, just as had been predicted.

   • 1880 October 22, Benjamin Disraeli, chapter XVI, in George Earle Buckle, editor, The Life of Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield, volume VI: 1876–1881, published 1929, Hughenden Manor; To Lady Bradford, page 592:

     A few, feeble words—my first—to tell you I have left my room this morning and am shaven and shorn and dressed and sofaed in my writing room, after a terrible ten days or more.

   • 2006, Kim Akass, Janet McCabe, Reading 'Desperate Housewives': Beyond the White Picket Fence:

     Many a time back in my boozing days when I was sofaed too.

• "sofa, n.", in the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

sofa (plural sofas)

1. (historical) A slave soldier who served in the army of the Mali Empire.
   • 2006, Magbaily C. Fyle, Historical Dictionary of Sierra Leone, page xx:

     1884 Sofas conquer northern Sierra Leone. The sofas were soldiers of Mandinka empire builder, Samori Turay. Falaba, capital of Solima Yalunka kingdom, destroyed in the process.

• OFAs, as of, oafs

sofa c (singular definite sofaen, plural indefinite sofaer)

1. sofa, couch, divan, settee

Borrowed from French sofa, perhaps via Turkish sofa, ultimately from Arabic صُفَّة (ṣuffa).

• IPA^(key): /ˈsoː.faː/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: so‧fa

sofa m (plural sofa's, diminutive sofaatje n)

1. (chiefly Belgium) A couch, a sofa.

   Synonyms: bank, zitbank

Ultimately from Arabic صُفَّة (ṣuffa, “a long seat made of stone or brick”), from Aramaic צפא (ṣipā’, “mat”)/Classical Syriac ܨܦܬܐ. The word may have entered French via Turkish sofa.

Note casually that Arabic itself uses كَنَبة (kanaba) for “sofa”, from French canapé.

• (France) IPA^(key): /sɔ.fa/
• (Canada) IPA^(key): /so.fa/, /so.fɔ/

• Audio (France)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -a
• Homophone: sofas

sofa m (plural sofas)

1. couch; sofa

   Synonym: canapé

• “sofa”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

From Old Norse sofa, from Proto-Germanic *swefaną.

• IPA^(key): /ˈsɔːva/
• Rhymes: -ɔːva

sofa (strong verb, third-person singular past indicative svaf, third-person plural past indicative sváfum, supine sofið)

1. (intransitive) to sleep

   Ekki vekja hana, hún er sofandi.

   Don't wake her up, she's sleeping.

This verb needs an inflection-table template.

• sofna
• syfja

From Dutch sofa, from French sofa, ultimately from Arabic صُفَّة (ṣuffa, “a long seat made of stone or brick”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈsofa/
• Hyphenation: so‧fa

sofa (first-person possessive sofaku, second-person possessive sofamu, third-person possessive sofanya)

1. sofa: an upholstered seat with a raised back and one or two raised ends, long enough to comfortably accommodate two or more people.

• “sofa” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016.

sofa (plural sofas)

1. (item of furniture) sofa

Derived from English suffer.

sofa

1. to suffer, to be troubled, to be distressed
   • 2012, Di Jamiekan Nyuu Testiment, Edinburgh: DJB, published 2012, →ISBN, 2 Korintiyan 1:6:

     So ef wi sofa, wi a sofa kaaz wi waahn fi elp unu an wi waahn unu fi kip chrang. An ef wi get elp, unu wuda a get elp tu. Kaaz unu wi nuo se wen unu a sofa laik wi, fi unu elp wi kom. An dat wi mek unu gwaan kip chrang wen chobl tek unu.

     If we are in distress, it is for your comfort and salvation. If we are being comforted, it is for your comfort, which results in you patiently bearing the same sufferings that we suffer.

• sofarieshan

sofa

1. Rōmaji transcription of ソファ

Borrowed from French sofa or Italian sofà, ultimately from Arabic صُفَّة (ṣuffa, “a long seat made of stone or brick”). Compare Russian софа́ (sofá).

sofà f (plural sòfos) stress pattern 2

1. sofa, couch

• “sofa”, in Lietuvių kalbos žodynas [Dictionary of the Lithuanian language], lkz.lt, 1941–2024
• “sofa”, in Dabartinės lietuvių kalbos žodynas [Dictionary of contemporary Lithuanian], ekalba.lt, 1954–2024

Borrowed from English sofa.

sofa m (plural sofas)

1. (Jersey, Guernsey) sofa

• jontchéthe

sofa m (definite singular sofaen, indefinite plural sofaer, definite plural sofaene)

1. sofa, couch

• “sofa” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

• IPA^(key): /ˈsuːfɑ/

sofa m (definite singular sofaen, indefinite plural sofaer or sofaar, definite plural sofaene or sofaane)

1. a sofa or couch

• “sofa” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

From Proto-Germanic *swefaną.

sofa (singular present indicative sefr or søfr, singular past indicative svaf, plural past indicative sváfu or sófu, past participle sofinn)

1. to sleep

• sofna
• svefn

• Icelandic: sofa
• Faroese: sova
• Norwegian Nynorsk: sova, sove
• Jamtish: sovo
• Elfdalian: såvå
• Old Swedish: sova
  • Swedish: sova
• Old Danish: souæ
  • Danish: sove
    • Norwegian Bokmål: sove
  • Scanian: søva
• Gutnish: syve

• “sofa”, in Geir T. Zoëga (1910) A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press

Borrowed from French sofa, from Arabic صُفَّة (ṣuffa, “a long seat made of stone or brick”), from Aramaic צפא (ṣipā’, “mat”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈsɔ.fa/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔfa
• Syllabification: so‧fa

sofa f (diminutive sofka)

1. sofa, couch

• sofa in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• sofa in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Borrowed from Ottoman Turkish [script needed] (sofa), from Arabic صُفَّة (ṣuffa, “a long seat made of stone or brick”), from Aramaic צפא (ṣipā’, “mat”).

sofa f (plural sofale)

1. sofa

sòfa f (Cyrillic spelling со̀фа)

1. (Serbia) sofa

Borrowed from English sofa.

• Audio (Kenya)

  (file)

sofa (n class, plural sofa)

1. sofa

Inherited from Ottoman Turkish صفه (ṣuffa, ṣofa, “a porch or hall with benches, a recess in a hall or ante-room”),[1] from Arabic صُفَّة (ṣuffa, “bench, sofa, vestibule”).[2]

• IPA^(key): /soˈfa/
• Hyphenation: so‧fa

sofa (definite accusative sofayı, plural sofalar)

1. An area in the house where all rooms open into; hall, hallway.

   Synonyms: hol, salon

• “sofa”, in Turkish dictionaries, Türk Dil Kurumu
• Çağbayır, Yaşar (2007) “sofa¹”, in Ötüken Türkçe Sözlük (in Turkish), Istanbul: Ötüken Neşriyat, page 4277

Borrowed from Russian софа́ (sofá).

sofa

1. sofa

• Zajceva, N. G., Mullonen, M. I. (2007) “тахта”, in Uz’ venä-vepsläine vajehnik / Novyj russko-vepsskij slovarʹ [New Russian–Veps Dictionary]‎, Petrozavodsk: Periodika